TDF 2020, Stage 18 Meribel – La Roche-sur-Foron 175 km
Ineos go 1-2 on the stage. Carapaz into Polka Dots while GC battle ends in a draw behind.
DENVER, CO – Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I begin today by presenting my case for the King of the Mountains competition. It wounds me, it is a stab in the heart to hear some dedicated Tour viewers question the existence of the beloved Polka Dot Jersey—the most famous critic being a controversial Texan who at one point seemed to have won 7 Yellow Jerseys. Do these critics not remember the first days they were exposed to the Tour de France so long ago? In the very first Tour we ever watched, we quickly recognized and learned the Yellow and Green Jerseys in the first few days, but it is once we came to the mountains for the first time that the most exotic and eccentric jersey revealed itself. Someone was wearing a white jersey with red Polka Dots, we—everyone one of us—turned to the most experienced fan in the room and asked why the rider was wearing such a zany jersey, and then the person told us: “That, young one, is the Polka Dot Jersey awarded to the King of the Mountains.” The King of the Mountains, what a title, what an award, what an achievement; we all thought at least for a time: “Who would want to wear Yellow when you could be in the beloved Polka Dots, and be the King of the Mountains?” Historically, some riders have thought just that: such legends as Federico Bahamontes, the Eagle of Toledo, and Lucien Van Impe each won six Polka Dot Jerseys and only one Yellow. But the critics will say too often they see some “scrub” rider get into the Polka Dots in the first week and then they are one of the first 50 riders shelled out the back on the first proper mountain stage. Yes, in the first week when the Tour is typically still in the flat north of France before reaching the first proper mountain range, where the big points are available, the Polka Dot Jersey really is just a glorified breakaway competition. O! But on that first proper mountain stage those Polka Dot hopefuls come out to play. And then each year, one establishes himself, going in every mountainous breakaway to be the first over all the high mountain passes. Below and behind the GC riders would be gearing up for battle, but ahead leading those mountain stages would be the Polka Dot Jersey climbing and sprinting for the King of the Mountains points, or riding away solo to an electric summit finish win in the most fitting of Jerseys to the cheers of the crowd: “Ole! Ole! How beautiful is his climbing! Yes, yes, the King of the Mountains is he!” In recent years it has been won by top climbers or out-of-contention GC riders entering the breakaways as their best hope of stage victory, and then by the third week they aggressively seek out every giant of the Pyrenees or Alps to take maximum points and lock-up the Polka Dots. The points distribution can seem strange and sometimes a top climber does not take over the jersey until the end of the final mountain range, but since 2013 look at the names of the prestigious winners: Nairo Quintana (now on Arkea-Samsaic), Rafal Majka (now on Bora-Hansgrohe), Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers), Makja again, Warren Barguil (now on Arkea-Samsaic), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep), and Romain Bardet (AG2R). Is the King of the Mountains always the best climber in the race? No, but they are close, and surely all the dedicated viewers can acknowledge the title is rightfully theirs; all, besides perhaps the maillot jaune, must pay tolls to use this King’s roads which go to the high passes or the most beautiful vantages in all of France. My final piece of evidence, men and women of the jury, is today’s stage.
Yesterday evening, young Tadej Pogacar (UAE), lying 2nd Overall on GC, had taken over the Polka Dots thanks to his inadvertent high tally of points from the first two weeks of high placings over crucial summits combined with his deliberate high placings on yesterday’s two massive “Beyond Category” climbs where the most points are available. The final “Beyond Category” summit of the Loze awarded double points and thus he, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), and Superman Lopez (Astana) had all shot into the top three on the competition. But today would be the final stage in the mountains and there would still be fireworks as the profile showed the riders would summit: first a mighty Category 1 climb, then a small Category 3 climb that must not be underestimated, next a long Category 2 climb, then another Category 1 climb, and finally they would finish with a Beyond Category climb and a descent into the finish; some will say stage profiles such as these look like sharks’ teeth, sharp jagged lines up and down, up and down. With so many scoring opportunities today, an aspiring climber would need to be in the break to take maximum points on these summits. Who were the biggest KOM threats that entered the breakaway today? For the third day in a row Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) got himself into the breakaway as well as the revelation of the Tour, Baby Spartacus, Marc Hirschi (Sunweb). With Pogacar on 66 KOM Points, Roglic on 63, and Superman at 51, Carapaz and Hirschi had their work cut out for them starting down at 32 and 31 KOM Points, respectively.
The breakaway at one point contained over 30 riders, but by the top of the first Category 1 climb the group was down to 18 men and only Carapaz and Hirschi were in the hunt of the King of the Mountains Points. At the top Carapaz sprinted for the line, but Hirschi was too quick for him and took the maximum 10 KOM Points while Carapaz only took 8 for 2nd; with such a large breakaway no points would be available for Pog and Rog back in the peloton until the breakaway was caught, thus their lead would continue to dwindle throughout the day. On the descent of this climb, Hirschi and Carapaz broke away with Carapaz’s teammate Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren). Kwiato set a good pace up the short Category 3 climb to keep the other chasers away, but Hirschi still licked Carapaz in the sprint: 2 more KOM Points for Hirschi brought his total to 43, while 1 more point brought Carapaz’s total to 41. Another descent and a long climb to the summit of the next Category 2 climb was paced mostly by Kwiato and Carapaz. It sounds routine, dear Readers, but this was not an easy task setting the tempo on the front for hours on end: by their efforts they held a 40-second gap over a group of a dozen or so chasers and already 5:00 on the peloton in order to give themselves a chance to stay away all day for max points and a stage victory. At the top of this Category 2 climb, Carapaz tried some trickery to get the better of Hirschi this time, with 500 meters to the summit a large roundabout was at the intersection in one of the cute little ski villages. As the group went to the right side of it, Carapaz attacked across the left side to get a jump on Hirschi, but Hirschi was still strong enough to hawk him down. Hirschi caught him and rolled him in the sprint for a third time, another 5 KOM Points for Hirschi and only 3 for Carapaz (their totals were now: Hirschi at 48, Carapaz at 44).
It was clear for Carapaz to take the Polka Dots today he would have to gap Hirschi, because he could not beat him in a sprint: that would mean attacking on the earlier slopes of the next climb to drop Hirschi or use other cleverer means. Over the top, Carapaz immediately started pushing the descent and created a small gap when Kwiato, his teammate, dropped back. Hirschi, that Swiss descending daredevil, came out to play; surely, he would hawk Carapaz down in a matter of minutes. Ah! But Hirschi flew too close to the sun, his daring descending caught up with him. As he was closing in on Carapaz on a left-curving bend, Hirschi came in too hot and tried to rail the corner too hard, the front wheel slid out from under him and he thudded to the ground on his left shoulder and left thigh. To his credit Baby Spartacus Hirschi, the strong man, was quickly up on the bike within seconds and descending again while trying to bang his bent brake lever back into its proper place, what hardy sportsmen cyclists are. Hirschi lost only 30 seconds in the incident, but that was all Carapaz and Kwiato needed. Staying upright is part of cycling, and thus Ineos used the situation to their advantage. They held and expanded the gap, swapping turns to build up a minute lead on Hirschi by the top of the next Category 1 climb, the gap on the chasers was irrelevant for none were coming back this day, and their gap to the peloton was now 8 minutes. Carapaz took the maximum 10 KOM Points available bringing his total to 54, while a minute later Hirschi took only 4. On the next descent Hirschi was more cautious—as we all naturally are after a crash—and his deficit continued to grow, his hopes of Polka Dots were crushed with Carapaz and companions ahead gobbling up too many points. Finally, Carapaz and Kwiato continued to push up the final Beyond Category climb and having dropped their breakaway companions Carapaz took the full 20 KOM Points available to move into the virtual lead of the King of the Mountains competition. Richard Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Giro d’Italia, was a last-minute call-up to be super domestique here at the Tour for Egan Bernal. With Bernal’s collapse, Carapaz found freedom and seized his chance immediately: three days in a row in the breakaway—steel legs he must have! His results: on the cusp of a stage win and being draped in the Polka Dot Jersey as King of the Mountains of the Tour de France, not bad, not bad at all. But all of this was provisional, behind a final last GC mountain shootout would potentially spoil Carapaz’s breakaway exploits.
Jumbo-Visma had an uneasy, but relatively controlled day on the front of the peloton: this was the last mountain stage, the final spot for Roglic their leader to be ambushed. But the final Beyond Category climb surely would be fertile ground for GC men to begin in their last attacks before Saturday’s decisive Time Trial up La Planche des Belles Filles to decide the General Classification of the 107th Tour de France. Who set off the fireworks? Mikel Landa and his Bahrain-McLaren team, unrewarded heroes of yesterday’s stage. On the lower slopes teammate Wout Poels paced him out of the Jumbo-controlled peloton. O! Landa looked good today, the climb was hard and steep but there he was on the 12% gradients, hands in the drops like Marco Pantani il Pirata of old, churning a massive gear using his powerful tree-trunk-like thighs. On such steep grades, it seemed every powerful revolution increased his gap by another second. Right and left he was passing the floundering and wilted chasers who had started the day in the same break as the leading Ineos duo; they looked to be going backwards as Landa flew by them. Behind, his attack put Rigoberto Uran (EF) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in jeopardy, spit out the back, potentially losing their Top 10 places on GC. It was not Roglic or Pogacar who chased Landa down, as always happens in the final of a Grand Tour, it was the riders placed just ahead of him on GC: thus young Enric Mas of Movistar came to the front to lead the pursuit. It took the whole length of the climb, but by the top the GC favorites recaptured Landa. Over the top he went, together with young Pogacar, mighty Roglic with his loyal Sepp Kuss, Superman Lopez was there of course, and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) as well. Now dear Readers, there was an unexpected crucial situation: these GC men flew up the climb so quick that most of the breakaway chasers had been caught and the Ineos duo’s lead had been cut to 3 minutes. The question was how many guys crossed the top of the Beyond Category climb already? Because Pogacar had certainly made sure to cross the line first for his group. Carapaz had taken 20 KOM Points already to put himself at 74 Points total. In what position was Pogacar across? If Pogacar was 5th across, he would earn 8 points and be tied with Carapaz on 74 KOM Points. Over the top, before a long descent into the finish, the GC men battled across a dusty gravel road. The battle was epic and chaotic, Richie Porte punctured and needed a bike change. Roglic seemed to string out the bunch with Pogacar dangling at the back. But the section ended and the GC favorites eventually all grouped back up and finished together. We received confirmation that Pogacar was only 6th over the top of the climb and thus only earned 6 points putting him at 72 KOM Points. Carapaz would move into Polka Dots tonight, but at the moment Carapaz was thinking of other things.
At the front of the race, there were the Ineos duo of Richard Carapaz and Michal Kwiatkowski, the last survivors of the breakaway. The final was mostly a fast descent to the finish. With a gap of 3 minutes to the GC riders behind, they knew they would comfortably win this, but did they know who would win? What would you do in a situation such as this? Perhaps you say Kwiato should take it, because Carapaz is going into the Polka Dot Jersey. Not so fast, though this is the last mountain stage of the Tour, Saturday’s Time Trial still has a massive Category 1 climb in it worth large amounts of KOM Points, Carapaz has not yet sealed the KOM competition for this Tour—a few days in Polka Dots is not as valuable as a Tour stage win. And both guys have worked hard and done equal share of the work all day. And yet, Michal Kwiatkowski has been a part of this team for 5 years now. This Pole is a talented rider who has gotten many great results in one-day classics, but in the Grand Tours he has few results to show for himself, never even the winner of a Tour stage. This is due to the fact that he has been such an incredible sacrificial workhorse and integral essential piece of all of Sky/Ineos’ Tour victories over these years. I remember Kwiato’s most impressive domestique performance was at the 2017 Tour where Chris Froome won his 4th Yellow Jersey by a very narrow margin. Kwiato was about as versatile and impressive as Wout Van Aert has been this Tour, but without ever letting himself off the leash for even a second. Every minute of every flat stage he was by Froome’s side, guiding him safely through the peloton. At every feed-zone—easy places for crashes as the riders awkwardly grab bags of food at high speeds—he would skillfully grab two bags, one for himself but also Froome’s so that his leader would not be in danger of mixing up in a crash—truly, one time he even grabbed three bags literally together at once, look up video for yourself because I cannot describe with words how it takes such extreme bike-handling skills to do such things! On one stage, Froome had a puncture, and instantly Kwiato was off his bike and swapping his front wheel out for Froome’s—I swear, the best mechanic in the world could not have done a quicker change. Dear Readers, I remember that performance well, because Kwiato’s loyalty that Tour rose to Samwise Gamgee levels: Kwiato could have simply paced Froome to Mordor and fought off legions of orcs while Froome rode up the Beyond Category Mt. Doom climb to destroy the Ring. Yes, he was The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton before Van Aert came along, now he is one of the elder statesmen on the cusp of winning a Tour stage with only a teammate standing in his way.
For the last 10 km, they were flying down the descent and yet fully conversing with each other and on the radio to the team car behind. What were they deciding? Would the team declare who would win? Would they tell them to work together until the last K and then sprint it out and the best man would win? Though an Ineos rider was clearly about to win the stage, the pressure was building as they approached to see what they would decide to do. And then, under the Red Flame with 1 Kilometer to go, they patted each other on the back—wrapping one arm around each other as best they could in a hug while riding a bike. Was that the final gesture before the teammates became enemies? No. They slowed up, then sat up. Dear Readers, it was the ultimate power move in cycling. These teammates would not now become enemies, they would enjoy and celebrate to the line together. Who crossed first didn’t matter, they had already won and they would cross together. They soaked it in for the final stretch, sitting up and clapping hands. Kwiato, always a character, blew kisses to the fans, and his gigantic smile was incredibly contagious, it warmed our hearts. Arms wrapped together, the bikes slowly crossed the line in almost a photo finish, but Kwiato had it. Just five days ago on Sunday Ineos was defeated and seemingly in shambles and at rock bottom, but from the ashes of Egan’s collapse the workhorses and bit players took their rare chances at Tour glory. This year they will not celebrate with another Yellow Jersey in Paris, but surely this was one of the sweetest victories in the team’s history. Ah! To see these loyal men who so often go unnamed…Why! It is the greatest pleasure I take from the sport to see them finally get their day of glory, a fairy-tale ending or reward for all their countless days of selfless work. It brings a smile to my face that does not fade for the rest of the day, I go to bed content and happy after witnessing such beautiful things, such just rewards, such fitting endings.
Cycling Odysseys 